


The Long Way Around

by Karategrl80



Series: Sastiel Love Week 2020 [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Gen, M/M, Mermaids, Sastiel - Freeform, Sastiel Love Week, mer!cas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:34:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23539954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karategrl80/pseuds/Karategrl80
Summary: Sam really, really, shouldn't have been surprised when he fell for a mer-person.
Relationships: Castiel/Sam Winchester
Series: Sastiel Love Week 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1692730
Comments: 8
Kudos: 18
Collections: Sastiel Love Week 2020





	The Long Way Around

**Author's Note:**

> Yay! Day 2! And there is much less dialogue, so hopefully less choppy than yesterday's extravaganza! I was just thinking, oh well, I guess I'll go to bed and write today's story tomorrow, and then this mer bunny swam up to me and flicked me with its tail, and then I was like, welp, I guess I'm staying up late again tonight...LOL

It really should have come as no surprise to Sam that he fell in love with a merperson. As an exotic intelligent species advocate, specializing in exotic laws and rights, he was obviously bound to meet up with a number of different exotic species. Castiel was one of the ambassadors between the mer and human civilizations. He and Sam first met when negotiations regarding the farming of shellfish in the kelp forests went south, because a human group claimed the mer-people were hiding resources, and accused the negotiations delegation of encouraging and covering up the deception While Sam had a successful and diverse career as an advocacy lawyer, he had never met any mer-people before. Additionally, this was the most high profile case he had ever been hired for, and it was nerve racking. 

Castiel was suspicious, at first. Sam couldn’t really blame him, a lot of the exotics who came to his firm for help were, after being double crossed and abused by the human system multiple times. What Sam was not expecting was for the Human Rights League--the organization pressing charges, to accuse Sam of being untruthful about his own heritage. Sam still is unsure how they found the information, but the group dug up a great great ancestor of Sam Winchester who had fae blood. Of course, by the time Sam and his older brother, Dean, were born, the fae blood was practically bred out of them, and since no one in the past 3 generations had any contact with the fae community, neither were eligible to be considered fae citizens. However, it was this discrepancy that actually helped Castiel learn to trust Sam. The first trial was placed on hold while the investigation of Sam’s heritage was investigated, and Castiel and Sam somehow found themselves spending many late nights discussing exotic heritage and customs. Castiel, in fact, helped Sam prepare the evidence that he was not lying about his species, and building successful counterarguments to the claims of the Human Rights League.

As Castiel and Sam continued to work together on the Kelp Forest Treaty, their mutual respect for each other’s talents seemed to grow into something more...personal. Sam, in this case, was the cautious one, having been let down too many times in the past. But Castiel was patient, and determined that they should “teach” each other about their species’ courting habits. First, Castiel presented Sam with a beautiful abalone shell, which, Castiel explained, if the potential partner was interested in getting to know the giver, they would accept. So of course, Sam did. Sam then brought Castiel out to dinner, after first interrogating him to find out what kinds of foods were acceptable. They ended up at a gorgeous seafood restaurant with tables facing the bay. Castiel was suitably impressed. Castiel said the next step would usually be to take long swims to get to know each other, but since that wasn’t possible, they should take up boating. Surprisingly (to Sam, at least), Castiel was a sailboat enthusiast, and had his captain’s license. Sam and Castiel then spent hours relaxing on Castiel’s sailboat, floating on the ocean, simply  _ being. _

Sam was unsure what to follow that fantastic experience with, until he found out that Castiel had never seen the giant redwood trees in Sequoia National Park. Castiel was amazed by the giant trees, calling them kelp monsters. When they returned to Palo Alto, Castiel was very secretive about their next adventure. He refused to tell Sam what they were doing, but that he should prepare for either hiking, swimming, or boating. Sam was confused, because he had done all of those things with Castiel already (Although the swimming was in a hotel pool while they were visiting the redwood trees). But when he realized he wasn’t going to get any answers, he packed everything into a tote, and prepared for the unknown. 

He was not expecting to be led down a rocky shoreline, to a deserted beach area. Castiel had Sam sit on a rock, and told him he’d be right back, he just had to grab something from the car. Sam waited and waited, and was beginning to believe perhaps Castiel had left. He didn’t understand why Castiel would do such a thing, but he also couldn’t think of any reason why he would take as long as he was. Until suddenly, Cas was in front of him, but not standing in the water, but floating in the water in front of the rock. “Um, Cas…” he starts to ask, when Castiel puts both of his hands on the rock and heaves himself onto the rock next to Sam. Except where his legs usually are, is a beautiful blue-green tail. Sam reaches out, almost touching, before he realizes what an invasion of personal space that would be. He finally wrenches his gaze from Castiel’s tail to his face, and stammers confusedly. “Cas...Cas...you’re beautiful, but I thought it was...inappropriate…” Sam’s words failed him as Castiel laughs at him.

“Well, no, we don’t like to show our tails to humans because humans like to pin our tails on walls as trophies,” he says.

Sam looks horrified, and begins stammering incoherently about the injustice and who knows what else.

Castiel takes pity on him, and places two fingers over his lips to stop his garbled attempts and communication. He then unhooks a bag he’d had slung over his shoulder, apparently, since Sam hadn’t seen it before then. He pulls out a necklace of abalone shell and pearl. Now, Castiel begins to look nervous, and Sam looks at him concernedly.

“A month ago, you accepted my abalone shell, to agree to get to know me. If you are willing, and find me an acceptable partner, I would like to ask you to be my mate.”

Sam is so flabergasted he cannot speak for several minutes, during which Castiel starts to look more worried. He looks away from Sam, and begins to put the necklace away.

Sam finally finds his voice. “Wait Cas.” Cas looks back at Samuel hopefully. “I would be honored to be your partner, your mate, whatever the correct term is.” Sam searches Castiel’s face, hoping he wasn’t too late. Castiel breaks out into a grin, his blue eyes shining excitedly.

“I am so happy to be able to call you mate, Samuel Winchester,” he says, and lifts the necklace over Sam’s head, and then fidgets with it until all the pieces are laying just right. Leaving his hand against Sam’s chest, Cas states, rather boldly, “I’d like to kiss you, if that would be alright with you?”

“Yes. I can definitely get behind that,” Sam says.

When they finally separate, Sam asks, “So, are we like, mer-married now?”

Castiel laughs again. “No. That’s a whole nother ceremony. This is just...us...saying we are together...for each other. If we want to make it formal, in the eyes of the merpeople and your human family, we can. But for now, this is an invitation for us to get to know each other and explore each other.”

“Explore, huh?” Sam says.

“Yes, Explore.”

“Well,” Sam says, as he slides off the rock and into the water, “Get in here so we can do some more ‘exploring’ together.”

“Your wish is my command, Samuel,” Castiel replies, diving in after Sam and swimming away, causing Sam to curse and start swimming after him.

There is a great deal of laughter and joy in that small cove on this day, but as for any other activities that may or may not have occurred, I shall have to leave that to your imagination!


End file.
